'Plastic-free' fashion is not as clean or green as it seems:
We have all become more aware of the environmental impact of our clothing choices. The fashion industry has seen a rise in "green," "eco" and "sustainable" clothing. This includes an increase in the use of natural fibres, such as wool, hemp, and cotton, as synthetic fabrics, like polyester, acrylic and nylon, have been vilified by some.
However, the push to go "natural" obscures a more complex picture.
Natural fibres in fashion garments are products of multiple transformation processes, most of which are reliant on intensive manufacturing as well as advanced chemical manipulation.
While they are presumed to biodegrade, the extent to which they do has been contested by a handful of studies. Natural fibres can be preserved over centuries and even millennia in certain environments. Where fibres are found to degrade they may release chemicals, for example from dyes, into the environment.
Perhaps the real threat to the environment is over-consumption.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @01:42PM (1 child)
1) I'd rather my plastic stuff lasted forever and didn't rot. But a lot of plastics seem to get brittle and crumbly with age.
2) One cause for plastic in the oceans is littering and improper waste disposal. As for microplastics - that's mainly from laundry and tires the last I checked.
3) Regarding the rotting and biodegrading, plastic has only been around for a number of decades and various organisms are already starting to develop ways of digesting it. Maybe just give it half a century or so and more stuff will start digesting microplastics and some outdoor plastics will need to be treated with various chemicals to stop it from rotting, just like some outdoor wood needs to be treated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:10PM
And thus the main point of plastics will be lost to humanity forever, all because we used it for single use bags and containers instead of more permanent structures.